Playing the field

Just how much pressure can a location - or birds - take?

No hurricanes threatened the coast and rain didn't puddle the fields prior to this year's Sharpstown High School reunion wingshoot near Orange Grove. And for us even the birds cooperated during a South Zone opening that had been welcomed with inauspicious predictions and that passed with mixed reviews.

Leading to opening day, outfitters and ranchers unwilling let too much optimism influence their outlooks were guarded -- almost apologetic -- when they spoke about preseason flight patterns and bird numbers. Part of the problem was that many overgrown fields were too boggy to support a tractor. This made many fields virtually un-huntable and unattractive for mourning doves that prefer feeding on bare ground.

Biologists, who are not in the business of forecasting our wingshooting success, mostly limited their comments to population recruitment and breeding habitat. Both looked good.

Even the typically upbeat Ronald Rychetsky provided sketchy reports from the fields we had the option of hunting. But then just before opening day, Rychetsky called to tell me what every wingshooter longs to hear.

He painted a picture with doves pouring into a well- pruned dry field, flanked on two sides with dense trees and scattered with horizontal stacks of pill-shaped hay bales. Without a hint of autumn in the air and no seasonal shift on the way, we assumed these birds of the mourning variety mostly were natives.

If you're curious, biologists tell me that by the time migratory doves reach South Texas they generally are older and carry more fat on them. Check this out next time you're breasting your doves.

Texas Parks & Wildlife's Dove Program leader Jay Roberson said the ratio of young birds to older birds during the season's first week could be as high as 1.3 to 1. These too usually are native birds. The ratio becomes more equal later as vulnerable young birds are removed from the population by hunters. Also, Roberson said older birds tend to delay their southern migration, allowing juveniles to go first.

Here's an interesting note. Rockport's Len Polasek, a regional director for the department's Wildlife Division in South Texas, told me that birds from up north tend to fly in flocks.

So most of the pairs and singles that South Texas hunters see were born here. I didn't know that.

And unlike their migrant counterparts, early season resident doves have developed entrenched habits in familiar fields. They generally maintain these habits until the pattern is interrupted by a catastrophic event of the man-made or atmospheric kind. As you'd expect, we provide this pattern-changing incentive by our shotgun blasts. The skies near Orange Grove were filled with mostly mourning doves during opening day. Day 2 was nearly as good. A few of us went back Sunday morning and enjoyed a modest hunt that was much slower than Friday morning.

So how long does it take for birds to change their habits? Or better yet, how much harassment will a population of doves endure before the survivors fly to or pass over a quieter field? And when, if ever, do they return? I'm not sure we could answer any of these with certainty.

There are so many variables -- food abundance, water availability, hunting mortality, hunter distribution, etc. And there are few absolutes in wingshooting unless you count the promise of excitement generated by a half-million camo-clad hunters each September in Texas. Dove hunting, as its best, is a celebration of our heritage and a recreation that spans many cultures and demographics. And this is what we found in our field.

Humidity rose with the sun during a still opening morning for us. The grasses of this South Zone field were heavy with dew. Hunters soaked their boots while stumbling through the uncertain process of deciding on a position they hoped would produce the right mix of shade and action.

Others simply trudged to the middle of the field to sit or stand near a hay bale or to hunker behind a sunflower plant left intentionally by a shredder. I calculated the sun and chose a patch of morning shade with good vantage. I like to watch flight patterns unfold before committing to a position.

The first shots came from the front of the field. I was in the back.

But soon, shots, jeers and cheers rang from every corner of our dove patch and this continued with limited brief pauses for the next two hours or so. So much for preseason rains scattering birds.

Actually, I learned later that wingshooting results have varied widely in the South Zone during the first two weeks of the season. Some of y'all didn't see many birds. Abundant water and plenty of food provided doves with many convenient choices. And when they have so many choices I assume they're more sensitive to hunting pressure.

It's not a major revelation that hunting pressure has a negative impact on bird movement. But we don't necessarily think of it as one of the few factors in dove hunting that we actually can control.

I'm not sure we'd change our behavior if we knew beter. But I imagine there are some wingshooters who would like to learn how many days of pressure they can exert on a good dove patch or tank before birds stop flying to it. More to the point, we want to know how long after birds abandon a field might they return.

Obviously, dozens of shotguns blasting skyward morning and evening for two consecutive days will discourage future flights of doves. Consider that if only half the hunters in our field bagged limits, then we removed hundreds of birds from the population that weekend.

Consider also that many of the harvested birds were young, leaving older more wary birds behind. We see this in ducks and geese. And before the opener we didn't have much cold weather up north, which raises the likelihood of encountering mostly native birds in South Texas. This might be important if early season migratory birds abandon fields with hunters more quickly compared with native birds with established habits. Of course any benefit this might provide could be offset by the greater numbers of bird.

A likely reason so many Texas wingshooters traditionally abandon dove fields after the opener is that birds have done the same.

But savvy and persistent hunters have learned that many dove-free fields are temporary. Just as hunting pressure teaches or conditions birds to stay away, quiet fields invite them to return.

And if decoys instill confidence in doves, then the presence of these returning native birds would attract newcomers to fields that offer seed or water. You know that each cold front brings a new batch of doves. Keep in mind that some of these new birds may arrive already conditioned by hunting pressure from their journey. So late-season hunters should make a greater effort to conceal themselves and their vehicles.

At TPW public hunting leases, where morning and evening hunting pressure can be intense during opening weekend, a handful of hunters continue to shoot into the season. Most of these hunters come on weekends or evenings only. These wingshooters tell us that as pressure diminishes, birds return, but only if food and water remain available. As birds smarten up luck and skill begin to play greater roles in our success. Wary travelers and native survivors tend to fly higher, frighten easier and avoid fields with large groups of hunters.

I enjoyed a second weekend hunt on the sprawling hills of Brooks Ranch near Swinney Switch, where they had great shoots opening weekend. Tabor Brooks distributed hunters widely for our afternoon shoot and this strategy paid off. The pace was brisk and many hunters bagged limits or nearly so during the final hour of a breezy evening. There were some high flyers and wary birds though.

I plan to research the patterns of late-season dove quite a bit this fall and winter. And when the second season arrives in December following the break, I'll be practiced and ready.

"That second split brings in a whole different population of birds," Polasek said. "It's almost like a new season."

FIELD MANAGEMENT:

Reducing impact of hunting pressure

These tips could extend quality dove hunting into the season.

- Limit the number of shooters in a field. There is no magic formula for this. But depending on habitat, contours of the land, shape of the field, shooting skill or experience level of hunters (shots fired), some folks recommend anywhere from a single shooting station for every four acres for a long narrow property to a single shooting station per 20 acres for large open pastures.

- Know the range of your gun. Avoid sky blasting at high birds. This unnecessarily conditions doves, making them more wary.

- Stay put. Avoid unnecessary movement within the field. This includes ATVs and trucks.

- Consider field rotation if possible. Resting a field is particularly effective in areas with high concentrations of hunters. The number of days a field should remain dormant is debatable.